What Alias ID and Phones Logins List Mean

A phone alias screen has only three fields, but two of them carry all the weight: the Alias ID and the Phones Logins List. Get these right and the alias routes agents correctly; get them wrong and logins either fail or land on the wrong server. Here is what each one does.

Alias ID

The Alias ID is what the agent types as their Phone Login on the agent screen. It must be between 2 and 20 characters, with no spaces or special characters. The common convention is the shared phone extension followed by an x — so phones on extension 101 get the alias 101x. There is nothing magic about the x; it is just a readable way to tell an alias apart from a real phone login.

Alias Name

The Alias Name is a label for humans, 2 to 50 characters, used only to help you tell aliases apart in the admin list. Agents never type it. Name it after the team, the extension, or whatever keeps your list readable.

Phones Logins List

This is the routing field. It is a comma-separated list of the agent screen logins of every phone that belongs to the alias — for example, 101a,101b. When an Agent logs in with the Alias ID, the system reads this list, finds the active server with the fewest agents, and places the call from that server's matching phone. Each entry corresponds to one SIP peer on one dialer.

flowchart TD
  A[Agent types Alias ID 101x] --> B[System reads Phones Logins List]
  B --> C[Entry 101a on dialer A]
  B --> D[Entry 101b on dialer B]
  C --> E{Fewest local agents}
  D --> E
  E --> F[Call placed from winning dialer]

At the bottom of the alias screen you also get links straight to each underlying phone entry, which makes auditing the list quick.

For how these fields fit into the wider phone setup, see the phones and aliases guide, and the login vs registration password.

VICIfast handles the cluster wiring so your alias fields stay simple — see pricing.